Re: unknown "looping" device

[Richard Zvonar <zvonar@zvonar.com>]

Your experience with Kim at TC sounds very familiar to me. I've had a 
few talks with him over the years and have made suggestions, but he 
always gets the same enigmatic little smile on his face and seems to 
withdraw.

A few years ago a bought a TC2290 (it was Ed Simione's demo unit) and 
I started using Max to create external control software for it. I had 
a great deal of trouble getting MIDI information from TC, and in fact 
many inquiries went unanswered. I finally reverse-engineered most of 
it simply by pressing buttons on the unit and studying the MIDI 
output. Eventually I was able to control all parameters of the TC2290 
through MIDI and this gave me sampling and looping capabilities that 
couldn't be achieved with either its foot controller or front panel.

Once following either an NAMM show or AES convention I brought my Mac 
to Ed's office and showed my software to Ed and Kim. This time Kim 
got a slightly bigger but less enigmatic smile and asked Ed to give 
me a "D" chip. He clearly enjoyed that someone had been clever enough 
to extend the capabilities of his creation, but I expect he also 
enjoyed that it didn't require him to do anything.

This reluctance to consider what looks to be "esoteric" functions is 
pretty common, I think. I've encountered it with a few manufacturers. 
They ironic thing is that on some occasions when I or a colleague has 
made a proposal that has been either rejected outright or ignored, 
several years later it will appear in one of the manufacturer's new 
models, or even more ironic, in one of their competitor's.

At 2:57 PM -0300 9/28/01, Matthias Grob wrote:

>In '88, when I discovered the basic functions for the later LOOP 
>delay, I proposed t.c. to include them in the 2290 and spent a 
>weekend with them, explaining the use of it. I thought it was an 
>easy software upgrade for a great machine, but the main engineers 
>(yes, his name was Kim, too) final reaction was: "Its not worth it 
>for a few esotherics".
>So I had to build a machine from scratch. A while before they 
>released the D-Two, I contacted him again, saying that it had become 
>clear that there was a public for such a tool and proposing to 
>include the function in newer t.c. units. There was no reply.
>So when the d-Two came out, I found it strange that they even made a 
>dedicated delay, still disregarding the loopers needs totally.

-- 

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Richard Zvonar, PhD
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